When an automobile becomes disabled on or adjacent to a roadway, a substantial danger is presented. It is well known that such a stationary, disabled vehicle constitutes a serious hazard to the safety of its passengers as well as to approaching vehicles. This problem is exacerbated if for any reason the flashing hazard lights do not work or have not been installed on such vehicle.
Various products have been designed to address the aforementioned problem, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,444 to Foster shows a device for hanging a sign in the rear back window of an automobile or to adhesively attach such a sign to the extreme rear end of a vehicle. A problem with hanging such a sign in a rear window is that hooks need to be installed on the inside top of the car and furthermore the sign is necessarily limited in size because of the space available inside the rear window of the vehicle. A problem with adhesively sticking the sign onto the rear of the automobile is that the paint can be damaged or removed when the sign is removed from the vehicle. Other warning signs for disabled vehicles are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,430,374 to Woodard, 3,594,938 to Mosch and 4,044,482 to Mosch. One of the problems with the structures disclosed in the last three patents referred to above is that the trunk of the automobile must be in an open position when they are used. One problem with this arrangement is that the automobile may need to be left unattended and there may be other things in the trunk which could be stolen under these circumstances. Furthermore, an open trunk also would permit a prospective thief to gain easy access to the interior of the automobile by pushing in the back seat. Also, the rods, fasteners and roller arrangements disclosed in these patents make them bulky and expensive. One embodiment of the first mentioned Mosch patent even requires that a fastener be clamped between the rear window and its frame.
Consequently, there is a need for a traffic warning mat which will overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art.